Harry Potter One Shots

A Different Start

All rights belong to the author, mandancie

It had been a long and dreary summer. The fiasco at the Ministry was still fresh in Harry's mind. Harry heard the entire prophecy and learned that he would have to die before the war was over. But what hurt more than anything was that Sirius was dead. The whole point of going to the Ministry was to save him and that turned out to be a trick. Not a trick, but a trap. And Harry fell for it.

Once Harry got back to Privet Drive, he started blaming everybody for Sirius' death. For a while he blamed Dumbledore. He wouldn't speak to Harry. He kept Sirius locked up in that house.

Then he blamed Snape. He didn't listen to Harry's warning. He just walked out of Umbridge's office. Then he stopped teaching him Occlumency, but that wasn't totally all Snape's fault, since Harry was the one that snooped into Snape's private things. If he was being honest with himself, Harry would probably feel the same way if someone went through his belongings. So he couldn't really blame Snape.

Then the last one he wanted to blame, even though it seemed irrational, was Hermione. She begged him to listen that it might be a trap. That Voldemort only put that vision in his head so that he would come running. Turned out that she was right. Again, he launched forward into something that he knew nothing about and it cost him more that he was willing to pay.

It was now two weeks before school was to start and Harry, deciding to get away from his relatives, called the Knight Bus and went to the Leaky Cauldron. After procuring a room from Tom, the bartender, Harry went out to Diagon Alley.

After getting a somewhat restless night's sleep and having breakfast at the pub, Harry went out to the alley and headed for Gringotts. Once he got to the bank, he was met by Griphook.

"Mr. Potter," Griphook snarled. "Now that you are sixteen, you will be taken to your family's vault.

Harry had a look of bewilderment on his face. His family's vault? Then whose vault had he been getting his money from? These questions rattled in his mind, but he didn't voice them just yet. He just followed the goblin to the moving carts.

"If we're headed towards my family's vault, then whose vault have I been taken money from?" Harry asked once he sat down and couldn't hold back his curiosity any longer.

"That was a trust that your grandparents started when you were born. It was left with explicit instructions that it be used for your schooling."

Harry had no response to that, so he just nodded.

They traveled for some time before the cart stopped. Once it did, and Harry and Griphook got out, they walked over to the only door in the whole hallway. Griphook opened the door and stepped aside. Harry, very slowly, walked in and the room lit instantly.

To say that Harry was surprised would be an understatement. Harry couldn't believe what he was seeing. He remembered the shocked look on his face when he first saw all the gold that was in the other vault when he first came to the Magical world. But this was completely different. There were books everywhere. Furniture and boxes were stacked neatly in a corner. Gold was scattered in small bundles around the enormous room.

Very slowly, Harry walked around the room. Looking at the photos that laid against the furniture, Harry saw what looked to be his grandparents. There was even a picture of his dad with Sirius, Remus and, picking up the photo and bringing it closer to his eyes, he saw what looked like Snape. But that couldn't be true. Harry remembered how Snape felt about his dad and Sirius, so for him to be in a photo with them voluntarily seemed impossible. Putting the photo aside for the moment, something caught Harry's eyes. There was a letter. Thinking that it was probably a letter from his mom to his dad or vice versa, Harry picked it up and started reading it.